Hola From Espana!

Jeff and I flew to Barcelona to meet Molly for the weekend since she is studying for five weeks in a little town on the eastern coast of Spain. We endured a crowded flight which made for very little sleep, but who's complaining?

We checked into our hotel which has European character, tiny elevators and lots of windy stairs. Nathan (Molly's BF) met us at the hotel, and the three of us explored interesting parts of this lovely old city. We had a typical Spanish lunch of paella and Sangria. Jeff also ordered a piece of pizza (they come in a small rectangle shape, not a slice) and since our waitress didn't speak English, Nathan "helped" order. Using one of the half a dozen Spanish words/phrases Molly had taught him in preparation for his trip, he added "con queso, con jamon" in hopes of helping Jeff get a piece of pizza with cheese and ham. Before the rest of the meal came, she brought a plate of sliced cheese, and lots of it. Oops, queso to her had nothing to do with the pizza but meant a plate of cheese. He declined it with hand gestures since his Spanish didn't work so well, and she took it away but apparently wasn't very happy about it. Sure enough, she next brought out a plate with about a dozen little slices of meat that looked like prosciutto sliced so thin you could read the newspaper through it. Trying to be polite customers, we kept it. It probably would have been good with cheese and crackers, on a sandwich or cooked on a pizza, but it wasn't so great by itself. When the bill came at the end of the meal, we nearly choked. The "jamon" alone was 19 Euros.....that's about $32! Seems jamon is a delicacy in these parts. Jeff politely asked Nathan to not do the ordering anymore!

We met Molly mid-afternoon when she and her group arrived from Denia by bus. They were an hour late so by the time they showed up we were pretty hot and sweaty since we were waiting in the sun on the steps of the agreed upon meeting spot. We enjoyed touring one of Barcelona's famous landmarks, La Segrada Familia. It is extremely detailed on the outside from the foundation to the top of the spires, but the inside is totally unfinished. Seems Gaudi needed a few more decades to get the job done. We went to the port (Barcelona is on the Mediterranean Sea) and took advantage of a photo op at the Columbus monument, then strolled along La Rambla, an amazing boulevard full of kiosks, street entertainers, artists and interesting sights. We shopped in a few stores and had a late dinner at Hard Rock Cafe so Molly could get a hamburger after eating three weeks of real Spanish food.

According to Jeff's fancy pedometer, we walked over 26,000 steps today!

We're pooped, so goodnight.

Click here for today's pictures. Click on Slideshow, then click on Full Screen mode in upper right.